Thursday- We Visit The Tunbridge Fair

 Thursday was the perfect fair day.... a bit cool with blue skies..... and The Tunbridge Fair was ready to welcome waves of excited students and  chaperones.

And at 9 am our waterfall was ready to have the water turned on.....it was magical to see the pools of water collect in the rocks and the droplets sparkle on the grass... Enthusiastic students from Randolph and other schools seemed amazed that we had made it all from recycled water bottles!!!

I spent the whole day at the fair and got a chance to see some of the behind the scenes at Floral Hall. There is an amazing team of  dedicated people that  carefully consider each and every project done by young person..... and they award ribbons to encourage and honor the creative spirit in each one. We should be very grateful for the time and effort they put into this Fall tradition....

Maybe next year the fair should honor the judges!!!!

If you miss the Fountain at the Fair  look for it at school next week and during our Wonderful Water week  with Marjory Ryerson In October  

Wednesday - Details and Deadlines

 We started the day on Wednesday with the satisfying and fun job of adding the color that would make our plants and animals come alive..... but also knowing that we had to have our project  delivered to the Tunbridge Fair at the end of the day..

As usual students rose to the challenge  and did whatever small or large task that was required.... 

Create the  shell pattern for the turtle.... sure!!!! 

Paint a texture on the frog.... sure!!!

Draw eyes on the salamander.... sure!!!!

Add glitter to the spider web.....sure !!!!!

Detail by detail students created a marvelous  woodland water fall  inhabited by creatively imagined and skillfully created plants animals and insects.

Each students contribution built on the ideas and work of others creating  another memorable Tunbridge Fair  created by all the students at Randolph Elementary School

When I got to the fair with our entry

I was proud to wait in a very long line with such an amazing project 

and say all of my students worked on this!!!! 

The Pieces Are Falling In Place

 Tuesday was the day that all the pieces started falling in place. Layers of priming and then textured spray paints made the mushed water bottles really start to look like rocks 

 Green priming spray paint  made the bottom of a gallon water bottle look convincingly like a turtle

Inventive students kept on collaborating on the persistent  frog leg problem and came up with a solution..... using the hard plastic handle section of a gallon water jug. ... it looked great.

Mrs Reid s first graders learned how to fringe their water bottles ...... I added a bit of green spray paint and   tufts of grass appeared.

For the most part all of our structures were done and now all we needed was color.

Making and Mushing Monday

Monday classes took the ideas and techniques that had been explored last week and started creating the  creatures that would surround our  gentle woodland waterfall. Ms. Kawecki s class  began to create- Fish- Mushrooms- Turtles- Frogs- Jack In the Pulpits- Cat Tails  and other assorted  plants and animals 

by mushing, cutting,scoring, taping and gluing 

the recycled water bottles.

 Ms Davis s class continued working on the  creatures modifying parts and adding details. Frog rear legs turned out to be one of the most difficult  construction challenges  and several groups redesigned  the birds nest so it  would be the right scale for the bird we were constructing. The first graders in Ms. Goodrich s class   learned how to use their scissors to cut the smaller water bottles  by using the  greater pressure on the inside of the  blades rather than the tips...... but the fun part was mushing the resulting sections to look like rocks.

By days end we had lots of plastic scraps and creative ideas but just a few scupltures in progress.

WATERFALL

 On Friday we tallied the votes and decided we would create  a small life size waterfall.

We imagined that it would look like a waterfall on a small stream we might find on a walk in the Vermont woods..... we started figuring out how we might make life sized cattails, jack in the pulpits, turtles ,dragonflies and frogs out of recycled water bottles. 

Now the hands on work of assembling the parts begins....there will be a lot more tangible results to look at next week but remember that ideas are an essential and vital part of the creative process. Taking the time to gather and listen to a wide variety of  thoughts makes this a collaborative process and project.

We welcome any comments, support  and encouragement you may have time to make on our site and project.

We still need recycled water bottles in all sizes for our project. We can especially use the large gallon size that milk or  water comes in because we will be using them for another project for our Wonderful Water Week in October.

Narrowing the choices

 After we freely brainstormed ideas and considered all possibilities for our fountain through our drawings it was time to narrow our focus. Classes on Thursday discussed what would work to make a successful project and voted for their favorite five ideas.

The top five that would all make fabulous projects were

Coral Reef

Waterfall

Water Park

Lake Champlain Monster

Rainforest

Too bad we can't make five fountains!!!

Visualizing the Fountain- Step Two

After we brainstormed ideas for the fountain students interpreted the ideas into drawings to visually communicate their concepts. These are some of the 3-6th grade drawings of how students visualize the final project. From these rough sketches we will  select our final idea and start problem solving how we will construct the project. We will be exploring how to use the materials of recycled water bottles in creative ways .

We still need more Water Bottles for this part of the project..... bring any donations you have to the Art Room.

Kindergarten Students Do Their Part

Kindergarten students in Ms Hutchinson's class learned the magic of mixing one color with black and white to create an ocean of color. Their wave paintings will be part of the signs and the base for our fountain at the fair.

Brainstorming Ideas- Step One

The 5th and 6th graders in Ms.Hinman's class have come up with a list of ideas for the Tunbridge Fair  fountain. One of these fabulous ideas will be included in the fountain which will be displayed in the Floral Hall. Here are some ideas we brainstormed for the fountain. Then we sketched how these ideas might look and how we might use recycled water bottles as materials.

Stop Water Pollution- Wave- Ocean- River- Lake- Fish- Ripples- Coral Reef- Rainforest- Hurricane Gustav- Geyser- Pond- Water Bottle Factory- Lily Pads- Seaweed- Boats- Moats-

Turtles- Sharks- Scuba Divers- Clean Water- Drinking Water- Water to Grow Gardens-

Third and fourth Graders in Ms Moore's  class added these brainstormed ideas-

Submarines- Earth- Squirt Gun- Water Park- Pool- Leaking pipes- Rain- Shower- Waterfalls-

Sink- Clouds- Surfing- Puddle-

What does it take to create a memorable Fair project

 The secret of our success in past years has been collaboration.... lots of ideas and participation from all of our students have created interesting and imaginative projects. Every day we will post an update of the steps we take in creating our fountain.

Help us by donating  recycled water bottles and bringing them to the art room.

Randolph Elementary Prepares for the 2008 Tunbridge Fair

 For decades  students at Randolph Elementary School have been creating  art projects to display at the Tunbridge Worlds Fair. This traditional beginning of the year project gives students a meaningful way to participate in an important part of their rural Vermont heritage and allows thousands of people to see their art work.We have evolved into doing a collaborative group project that involves all of the students in the school to create a feeling of community and allow us to work on a larger scale.

This year we will be creating a fountain to coordinate with our school wide theme of water. Check back and watch  our progress as we all work on this project and hopefully view the finished fountain at the Tunbridge Fair.